Chapter 5 - Caught Behind Closed Doors
The tender silence of the penthouse shattered early the next morning when Emily’s cell phone buzzed violently on the granite counter.
It was Daniel Ross.
Emily answered immediately, putting it on speaker so Adrian could hear.
“Emily? Are you at your desk?” Daniel’s voice sounded breathless, crackling through the receiver.
“Not yet, Daniel. I’m reviewing data remotely. What’s going on?”
“Julian Vance called an emergency closed-door meeting of the executive committee for nine o’clock. He claims to have evidence of ‘gross operational misconduct’ within the financial analysis team. He’s targeting you, Emily. He told HR that you’ve been accessing unauthorized server files under Cole’s directive to fabricate data.”
Emily looked across the kitchen at Adrian, whose expression hardened into pure, lethal stone.
“He knows we found it,” Adrian said coldly. “He’s striking first to discredit her before we can present the Swiss bank records to the board.”
“How did he track it?” Emily asked, a knot of panic forming in her stomach. “I used an encrypted proxy through Adrian’s terminal!”
“The French compliance officers,” Adrian realized instantly. “Julian must have called them early this morning to confirm the transfer protocols. When they told him someone was pinging the Olympe directory, he knew the net was closing.”
“Daniel,” Adrian commanded, stepping toward the phone. “Delay the meeting by thirty minutes. Tell Vance I’m caught in bridge traffic.”
“I’ll do my best, sir, but the board members are already assembling,” Daniel warned. “Vance has the vice presidents completely spooked.”
“Give me thirty minutes,” Adrian snapped, hanging up.
He turned to Emily, his eyes blazing with an urgent fire. “We have everything we need to bury Julian, but the Swiss transaction ledgers require an authorized decryption key. The physical hard token is locked in the safe behind my office desk at headquarters.”
“Julian’s already on thirty-seven,” Emily pointed out, her mind racing. “If we walk in together, his security team will block you from reaching the office while the committee meets.”
“They can block me,” Adrian said, a calculating smirk forming on his face. “They can’t block you if they think I’ve just dismissed you.”
Emily understood instantly. It was the oldest trick in the book, but executed properly, it would be devastating.
At 9:15 AM, the double mahogany doors of Northstar Meridian’s thirty-fourth floor flew open.
Adrian Cole strode through the lobby like a thundercloud, his expression terrifyingly dark. Two paces behind him, Emily Carter was visibly clutching her cardboard box, her face flushed with apparent fury, tears of anger glistening in her eyes.
“You have no right to confiscate my personal laptop!” Emily screamed, her voice echoing off the marble pillars, instantly freezing thirty employees in their tracks.
“I have every right!” Adrian roared back, his voice booming with thunderous authority. “Your contract clearly states that any device connected to internal servers is Northstar property! You’re done, Carter! Clear your things from my floor before I have building security throw you onto the street!”
He stormed past the elevators toward the executive conference room, slamming the door behind him with enough force to rattle the glass panels.
The entire lobby stared at Emily in horrified pity. Julian Vance’s executive assistant, Evelyn, was watching from the reception desk with a smug, satisfied smile.
Emily wiped her eyes, lowered her head, and hurried toward the service stairs leading up to floor thirty-seven. The moment the heavy steel fire door clicked shut behind her, the tears vanished. Her expression transformed into razor-sharp determination.
She sprinted up the three flights of stairs, bypassed the main lobby through the maintenance corridor, and slipped through the side entrance of Adrian’s private suite.
She had exactly four minutes before Julian’s committee meeting began.
She rushed behind Adrian’s desk, dropped to her knees, and pulled aside the walnut wood panel concealing the biometric wall safe. Her fingers trembled as she typed the sequence Adrian had given her: the coordinates of his mother’s hometown in France, followed by his father’s original founding date of Northstar.
The safe clicked. The heavy steel door swung open.
Inside lay the black USB security token.
“Looking for this, Ms. Carter?”
May you like
Emily froze.
A chill ran down her spine as she slowly turned around. Standing in the doorway of the private office was Julian Vance, a sickening, victorious grin spread across his face, flanked by two towering private security guards.
